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02 April 2014

The full story behind Diana: Her True Story

I got interested in royalty after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. I was 11 years old, and all of a sudden she was on the cover of every magazine for months upon months. I read everything I could about her, and that started my obsession for royals.

One of those books I read was Diana: Her True Story, by Andrew Morton. At time I read it, I remember thinking she was this sad, tragic figure that needed everyone to pity her. I realize now that when she cooperated to make the book with Morton, she was in a very depressing period in her life, and the book doesn't paint the full picture of who Diana really was.

What's more, the publication of Diana: Her True Story changed the way the Palace responded to negative press about them. At one point, the Palace had so much power in Britain, that if you wrote something negative about any of its members, you would lose your job at whatever newspaper or publisher you worked for.

This video explains how Morton's book changed things in Britain:

For a more accurate picture on who the real Diana, Princess of Wales, really was, I suggest reading any of Paul Burrell's books. Burrell was Diana's butler, and he wrote two books about his service to her: A Royal Duty and The Way We Were: Remembering Diana. Burrell has been criticised for profiting off of the Princess, which he indeed has. I personally feel like her death left him without a job, and without a friend, and it gained him quite a lot of infamy, especially when he was in court for having so many of the late Princess' possessions, so what else was he supposed to do?

I know most of you probably feel differently on this matter, but I will say it is extremely sad that the Princess was so famous that after her death, pretty much everyone who had ever known or worked for her wrote exposés on her. Even her brother, The Earl Spencer, used her image on the cover of his book about the Spencers (because who would have read his book without the Diana connection?).